Homily Lent 5B: A relationship of love: a law written on the heart

Homily for 5th Sunday of Lent Year B 2018 

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33

Introduction 

What kind of relationship do you have with God?  Or rather, what kind of relationship does God want to have with you? 

As some of you know one of my favourite TV shows is the sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. On this show, eccentric Sheldon Cooper regulates relationships with his friends, even with his girlfriend, by means of written contracts. 

• He has a roommate agreement with Leonard that stipulates all kinds of things including the bathroom schedule down to the minute. 
• He has a 31-page relationship agreement with his girlfriend Amy, which regulates things like the frequency and duration of date night. 
• And as for his other friends, their status depends on how many strikes they have accumulated or how many Cooper coupons they have earned. 

Is that the kind of relationship a Christian should have with God?  Apparently not. 

Scripture and Theology 

In today's reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord declares: “The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  In other words, he is declaring the kind of relationship he wants to have with his people, consisting of three things: 

• He wants a covenant with them, not a contract. 
• He wants a new covenant, to replace the old ones. 
• And this is going to happen in the days to come, when the Messiah comes. 

Unlike a contract which you sign when you buy or sell a house, or one between an employer and employee, a covenant is about a relationship between two people.  Yes, both contracts and covenants stipulate rights and responsibilities of each side, but a covenant is permanent, even if one side fails to meet its obligations, like in a marriage or family or parental relationships.  It is because of his covenant with Israel that the Lord says in Isaiah 49:1 says: Can a mother forget her baby, or a woman the child within her womb? Yes, even if these forget, yet even if these forget, I will never forget you.  And so, God was to have relationship with his people that is personal and intimate. 

But just because it is a covenant and not a unfeeling contract is no guarantee that it will work.  Over and over again God made a series of covenants with his people, promising to be their God and they his people.  But time and again they failed to live up to their end of the agreement. 

The first covenant God made was with Adam and Eve (Gen 1-2).  He gave them everything they needed, a garden, animals, each other and all he asked was one little thing: do not eat of the tree of knowledge.  As we know they broke that covenant. 

The second covenant was with Noah (Gen 6-9) in which God promised that he would not destroy the earth again with a flood; and he gave the rainbow as a sign of his promise.  Again sin followed that covenant. 

The third covenant was with Abraham (Gen 17), and God promised him many things: numerous descendants, a great nation, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Abraham and his children for their part had to obey God. 

The fourth covenant was with Moses (Ex. 20-34) and this was the big one.  God promised to deliver on the promises he made to Abraham as long as the people for their part kept the Ten Commandments, which were etched on two stone tablets.  Almost immediately they went back on their word. 

And then God made a covenant with King David (2 Sam 7), promising to establish the house of David as an everlasting kingdom.  But again as we know, starting with Solomon, David's son who brought in idolatry, and then his sons who split the Kingdom into two, this covenant was soon broken. 

But because this was a covenant, and not merely a contract, God never gave up on his people. And that is why now through Jeremiah, he promises: "The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."  And then he goes on to say: "It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt."  In other words, the new covenant cannot be "same old, same old" since that has been tried and failed. 

The first five covenants of the Old Testament worked like Sheldon’s agreements, with rights and obligations clearly stated up to the smallest details.  They were enforced by external conditions and laws like the tree of knowledge, the rainbow, circumcision, the stone tablets and the monarchy. But the new covenant, which Jeremiah promises is going to be different.  “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts,” God says.  In other words, the stipulations of the new covenant will be interior, within the people’s hearts.  And he goes on: “No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD.” 

Jeremiah's prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who announced this new covenant at the Last Supper.  Holding the cup of wine, he told his disciples, the same words the priest repeats at Mass: “The blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”  And on the next day, on the cross, Jesus shed his blood and sealed the new covenant.  That is why when the foreign Greeks come to see Jesus in today’s gospel, he does not start by giving them a set of rules and obligations.  Instead he tells them that there is a new sheriff in town: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."  And he is going to be glorified on the cross, like a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies so as to produce fruit.  A little later after they have heard the voice of God confirm the mission of Jesus, he says: "Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world [meaning Satan] will be driven out.  And when I am lifted up from the earth,  I will draw everyone to myself."  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have a new way of relating with God, one based on a law written in the heart, in love. 

And that is why when we sin, we are not merely breaking laws and precepts; we are breaking a relationship with someone we should love.  And that is why we go to confession to repair that relationship. 

Christian Life and Conclusion 

And so, what kind of relationship do you have with Jesus, with God the Father?  Is it the Sheldon Cooper kind, or is it mother and child kind? 

During this season of Lent, for example, we undertake three special practices: to pray, to fast and to give alms.  We can do these things, and indeed all our other Christian responsibilities the way of the Old Covenants, out of sheer obligation, or we can do them the way of the New Covenant, out of love, from the heart. 

A few years ago, one of our seminarians, now a priest had a heart transplant.  We were at first a little worried about how to relate with him.  But being the good sport that he is, he took our heart jokes in stride.  Sometimes when he was late with an assignment he would blame it on his contrite heart.  And because he received the new heart from a black person, he called himself half-black and half-white and said that if we dismissed him, he would sue us for racial discrimination.  But most of all, everyday he told us how grateful he was that God had given him a new life with a new heart. 

In the new covenant of Jesus Christ, God has given each of us a new heart.  Let us use our hearts, like the Baltimore Catechism said, “to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.”